Was It Designed?

The Bird’s Egg

● The bird’s egg has been called “a miracle of packaging.” Why?

Consider: While it appears solid, the calcium-rich shell of a chicken egg can have up to 8,000 microscopic pores. These allow oxygen to enter and carbon dioxide to escape​—an important exchange if the embryo is to breathe. Yet, the shell and several membranes prevent bacteria from infecting the embryo. Albumen​—a gelatinlike substance with a high water content—​gives the egg its ability to absorb shock.

Researchers would like to imitate the structure of the egg to create products with better shock protection and a film coating that could protect fruit from bacteria and parasites. However, “copying nature is not so easy,” writes Marianne Botta Diener in Vivai magazine. Attempts thus far, she notes, have not been environmentally friendly.

What do you think? Did this “miracle of packaging,” the bird’s egg, come about by chance? Or was it designed?

[Diagram on page 28]

(For fully formatted text, see publication)

INSIDE AN EGG

Shell

Yolk

Chalaza (anchors yolk)

Outer membrane

Inner membrane

Germinal disc (where embryo starts)

Thin albumen

Thick albumen

Air space